Mass Communications and Society Exam 2

agenda setting

media's role in deciding which topics to cover and consequently which topics the public deems important and worthy of discussion

astroturfing

creating a movement controlled by a large organization or group designed to look like a citizen-founded, grassroots campaign

big data

a collection of data sets too large for traditional analytic techniques to sort, analyze, and visualize

blog

short for weblog, a type of website in which a person posts regular journal or diary entries, with the posts arranged chronologically

catfish

Someone who fakes an online profile, usually to encourage another to fall in love with the false persona

distributed computing

individual, autonomous computers that work together toward a common goal, typically a large, complex project that requires more computing power than that of any individual computer

Folksonomies

collection of tags created by users that provide metadata (data about data) regarding information

free and open-source software (FOSS) movement

a movement advocating software to be freely available and the source code open to anyone to make modifications and improvements

instant messaging

often abbreviated IM, a form of real-time communication through text typed over a computer network

listservs

automated mailing-list administrators that allow for easy subscription, cancellation, and delivery of emails to subscribers

lurking

only reading what others write in online discussion boards but not contributing to the discussions

produsers

audiences who no longer are simply consumers but also produce content

trolling

simply repeating the same message in a chat room, which quickly draws the ire of other participants

six degrees of separation

notion that everyone in the world is separated from all other individuals by at most six additional nodes in a social network

small world

tight-knit social network with many strong ties

spam

unwanted mass emailing from advertisers

tagging

using searchable keywords to define a piece of information, file, image, or other type of digital media in a nonhierarchical system

usenet

one of the earliest discussion forums in use today, in which participants discuss topics in categories called newsgroups

wiki

website that lets anyone add, edit, or delete pages and content

word-of-mouth marketing

marketing that takes place among customers through discussions with one another

associated press (AP)

founded in 1848 as a not for profit members' cooperative by a group of six New York newspaper publishers to share the cost of gathering news by telegraph. Today, some fifteen hundred newspapers and five thousand television and radio stations are members.

balance

presenting sides equally and reporting on a broad range of news events

beat

Reporter's specialized area of coverage based on geography or subject. Common in large or medium-sized newspapers include education, crime, and state politics.

correlation

media interpretation ascribing meaning to issues and events that helps individuals understand their roles within the larger society and culture

crowdsourcing

using raw data gathered from the public and citizen-journalists to help create a news report

cultural transmission

the process of passing on culturally relevant knowledge, skills, attitudes, and values from person to person or group to group

Edward R. Murrow

A radio and, later, television journalist and announcer who set the standard for journalistic excellence during TV's golden age.

electronic news-gathering (ENG) equipment

tools such as video cameras and satellite dishes that allow journalists to gather and broadcast news much more quickly

fairness

news reporting on all relevant sides of an issue that allows representatives of those various sides the same coverage

frame

structure or angle given a news story that influences reader understanding covering the event

interpretive reporting

reporting that places the facts of a story in a broader context by relying on the reporter's knowledge and experience

James Gordon Bennett

Founder of the New York Herald in 1835. He initiated features found in modern newspapers, including a financial page, editorial commentary, and public-affairs reporting

Joseph Pulitzer

American newspaper magnate whose publications competed vigorously with those of Hearst. After 1900, he retreated from sensational journalism, favoring instead more socially conscious reporting and muckraking. He founded the Pulitzer Prizes, annual awards for outstanding journalism.

news hole

amount of total space available after advertisement space has been blocked out, typically in newspapers

objectivity

Journalistic principle that says reporting should be impartial and free of bias. Because of the difficulties involved in complete objectivity, this principle has largely been replaced by the concepts of fairness and balance.

penny press

Newspapers that sold for a penny, making them accessible to everyone. Supported by advertising rather than subscriptions, they tried to attract as large an audience as possible.

pseudo-events

events staged specifically to attract media attention, particularly the news

sensational journalism

news that exaggerates or features lurid details and depictions of events to increase its audience

slashdot effect

When a smaller news site's web server crashes because of increased traffic after its mention on popular websites, named for a frequent occurrence on the very popular technology news site Slashdot.org

soft news day

a day in which not much has happened that is newsworthy, entailing the addition of features with less real news value, such as human-interest stories

surveillance

primarily the journalism function of mass communication, which provides information about processes, issues, events, and other developments in society

William Randolph Hearst

owned the New York Journal (plus nearly 30 other papers).

American newspaper magnate during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries whose newspapers across the United States were noted for sensational journalism and political influence

yellow journalism

style practiced notably by publishers Pulitzer and Hearst during the late 1890s in which stories were sensationalized and often partly or wholly fabricated for dramatic purposes

amplitude modulation (AM)

radio carrier signal modified by variations in wave amplitude

broadcast

originally a reference to casting seeds widely in a field that was subsequently applied to the fledgling electronic medium of radio and later television

David Sarnoff

Head of RCA, he promoted the development of television as a mass medium yet blocked the development of FM radio for years because RCA produced and sold AM radio receivers

daypart

a segment of time radio and television program planners use to determine their primary audience during that time of day or night

digital rights management (DRM)

technologies that let copyright owners control the level of access or use allowed for a copyrighted work, such as limiting the number of times a song can be copied

Edwin Howard Armstrong

Columbia engineering professor who invented FM radio transmission

entertainment

providing or being provided with amusement or enjoyment

Federal Communications Commission (FCC)

Established in 1934, the principal communications regulatory body at the federal level in the United States

Federal Radio Commission (FRC)

Formed by the Radio Act of 1927, the commission, the precursor to the FCC, created a policy that favored fewer high-power radio broadcasting stations rather than more numerous low-power stations

freemium

subscriptions that provide some content for free but require a monthly subscription to take advantage of all the site has to offer

frequency modulation (FM)

radio carrier signal modified by variations in wave length/frequency

gramophone

Developed by inventor Emile Berliner, it used a flat disc rather than a cylinder to record sound.

Granville T. Woods

Inventor of railway telegraphy in 1887, a type of wireless communication that allowed moving trains to communicate with each other and with stations, greatly reducing the number of railway collisions

graphophone

An improvement on Thomas Edison's phonograph in recording audio, it used beeswax to record sound rather than tinfoil. Developed by Alexander Graham Bell and inventor Charles Tainter.

Guglielmo Marconi

Italian inventor and creator of radio telegraphy, or wireless transmission, in 1899

Heinrich Hertz

Physicist who demonstrated the existence of radio waves in 1885, setting the stage for the development of modern wireless communications. The measurement unit of electromagnetic frequencies was named for Hertz

independent labels

Small companies that produce and distribute records. Not part of the three major-label corporations, they include those producing only one or two albums a year as well as larger independents, such as Disney.

Lee de Forest

considered the father of radio broadcasting because of his invention that permitted reliable voice transmissions for both point-to-point communication and broadcasting

- invented a reliable way to transmit the human voice

long tail

The principle that selling a few of many types of items can be as or more profitable than selling many copies of a few items, a practice that works especially well for online sellers such as Amazon and Netflix.

major labels

Universal Music Group, Sony Music, and Warner Music Group- the three biggest recording-arts companies, which control much of the music industry partly through their powerful distribution channels and ability to market music to mass audiences

payola

Cash or gifts given to radio disc jockeys by record labels in exchange for greater airplay of the label's artists or most recent songs. After several scandals in the 1950s, the practice is now illegal.

phonograph

first patented by Thomas Edison in 1877 as a "talking machine," it used a tinfoil cylinder to record voices from telephone conversations

radio act of 1927

An act of Congress that created the Federal Radio Commission, intended to regulate the largely chaotic airwaves and based on the principle that companies had a civic duty to use airwaves, a limited public good, responsibly.

auteur

director as storyteller, or author, of a film

camera obscura

a dark box or room with a small hole that allows an inverted image of an outside scene to be shown on the opposite inner wall

cathode-ray tube (CRT)

device in older television and computers using electron beams to transmit images to the screen

community antenna television (CATV)

cable television developed in 1948 so that communities in hilly or remote terrain could still access television broadcasts

cord-cutters

those who have switched from cable or other connections to internet-delivered TV

cord-nevers

those who have known only mobile or wireless Internet-delivered TV

Daguerroeotype

photograph created by exposing a positive image on a metal plate

digital television (DTV)

television system in which all information broadcast by cable or through the air is in digital, or computer-readable, form

genres

topical categories

high-definition television (HDTV)

modern television technology that produces a much higher-resolution image, sharper color, a wider aspect ratio, and superior audio. Ultra-high definition is next-generation TV with even higher resolution video; 4k TVs can display video at 4,000 lines of resolution, compared to the 420 lines of standard definition TV.

independent films

films made by production companies separate from the main Hollywood studios

Louis Daguerre

inventor of the daguerreotype, an early type of photography

Mathew B. Brady

Nineteenth-century photographer acclaimed for his Civil War images and portraits of famous people

multicast

simultaneous transmission of multiple channels of compressed content or the same content but at different times

place shift

View video from anywhere using the Internet to access content.

product placement

a form of advertising in which brand-name goods or services are placed prominently within programming or movie content that is otherwise devoid or advertising, demonstrating the convergence of programming with advertising content

Thomas Alva Edison

His inventions included the electric light, the phonograph, and the Kinetoscope. Edison's lab in Menlo Park, New Jersey, had over sixty scientists and produced as many as four hundred patent applications a year.

time shift

recording of an audio or video event for later listening or viewing

user-generated content (UGC)

content created by the general public for distribution by digital media

Why evaluate online sources?

1. Just because a page is near the top of a Google search doesn't mean it has good info

2. Just because it's in an academic journal/book doesn't mean it has good info

3. AI makes fake sources ("hallucinating")

4. Just because someone can put a great website doesn't mean that they also have great information

Jim Kapoun's "5 criteria"

Accuracy, authority, currency, objectivity (bias does not always mean wrong or bad), coverage

Why is social media important?

Personally - can help you (re)connect with friends and family, or gain new friends

Professionally - can help you create and maintain your personal professional identity as well as your professional network

Corporate use of social media

companies use social networks to promote and maintain their brands and (sometimes) offer customer service; it's about controlling the message as much as possible!

ARPAnet (1969)

Created by the US Dept of defense

Wanted "redundant connectivity" in case of crisis

ARPA = advanced research projects agency

Most scientists on ARPAnet were civilians

Converted for civilian use by the 1970s

- Oct 29, 1969 - the first message was sent on ARPAnet, from UCLA to Stanford

Lexis-Nexis

an electronic database for newspapers and magazines

1st full-text databases (merged Lexis and Nexis)

- Lexis (1973) legal database

- Nexis (1978) news database

CompuServe (1979)

1st commercially successful ISP (internet service provider)

- tried to trademark "email"

Convergence

coined by Nicholas Negroponte

the ways various media industries intersect economically and technologically

30 year rule

Developed by Paul Saffo, the theory that it takes about 30 years for a new technology to be completely adopted within a culture

NSF Network (1983)

national science foundation (NSF) takes over ARPAnet

American Online (AOL)

First nationwide American internet provider

Was a "walled garden" (1989)

walled garden

A closed network or single set of services controlled by one dominant firm.

- often created to make a profit

open platform

allows users to obtain data from any source, no matter who controls it

Tim Berners-Lee (1989)

created the World Wide Web, a software system that simplifies internet navigation (made public domain in 1993)

Marc Andreesen (1993)

creates Mosaic (browser) when he was a college student, now a major investor in companies